During the Covid pandemic, holding events in the normal way was no longer possible, or only with great effort and precautions. The path many companies took was to digitalise their events. We show which event formats were most successful and where the obstacles – but also the opportunities – lie, for small to large companies.
Note: this article from May 2020 was updated in January 2022 and describes the situation during the Covid pandemic.
Events are ideal for increasing the capacity for participants and viewers with a livestream.
So if you reach the participant limit on site and want to increase the reach of your event, livestreaming is the measure that lets you reach your target group – even around the world, if you wish.
Other advantages of livestreaming over traditional events are:
easy interaction with viewers
no catering costs
precise targeting of your target group
an unlimited number of participants
Some companies even replaced the on-site event completely and switched to a live event online. The following overview shows what different live events can look like.
What are livestream events?
Livestream events are digital formats of events and trade fairs that specialise in marketing and sales online.
List of possible livestream events
Product launch
A livestream can fuel the hype around a new product and present it to a broad audience. Both world-famous brands and small start-ups can win new customers through a livestream. A product launch can be an informative and entertaining presentation or a demonstration in which viewers’ questions are answered. Livestreaming creates many creative ways to present new products in an entertaining way.
Panel discussion
Experts discuss a topic. Once a format you could only see on television, it is now a popular format for a livestream. Panel discussions are especially interesting for public institutions and organisations and can increase reach and awareness.
Trade fair
Large trade fairs lead the way. While ticket capacity on site is limited and sells out quickly, organisers use livestreaming to expand their reach significantly. Audiences of 500,000 people are no longer a rarity (E3 2019). Of course, such numbers aren’t realistic for smaller trade fairs with a more specialised target group. Even so, a livestream is worthwhile there too, because the percentage of new viewers is significantly higher with a livestream – and because a smaller-scale production is much cheaper.
Training
Universities led the way at the time: because of Covid, lectures could no longer be held in the normal way, so they were held online. Further training for employees is possible in a similar way, either with a livestream or with online videos.
Another format that was very popular at the time is masterclasses, which consist of several instructional videos on a particular topic – like a textbook, but digital. Masterclasses are an attractive way to sell knowledge to customers.
Sports event
It is no surprise that sports events can also be broadcast entertainingly via livestream – whether traditional sports or the e-sports scene, which keeps gaining popularity, especially among younger audiences, with ever-rising viewer numbers.
Event planning and secondary use
What matters is that you get the greatest possible benefit for your company. Two factors are decisive for this – one before and one after the actual event: the right planning and secondary use.
Planning
Here it is particularly important that you have the goal of your event clearly in mind. The task of the film production company or agency is then to create the optimal format for your event and ensure it runs smoothly.
Planning also includes marketing the event appropriately, so that your target group knows about it and you don’t end up in front of zero viewers because nobody knew about the broadcast. Because unlike a normal video, where viewers come over a longer period, with a livestream your target group should ideally be there from the start of the broadcast.
Secondary use
One of the big advantages of livestreaming is that secondary use is very simple. The entire live event can be recorded with little effort, with all camera angles. This gives you plenty of scope in editing and lets you easily cut out slips of the tongue, interruptions and unimportant passages. Besides the actual live event, you also get a video or film that you can use on your website or social media for months.
How Covid changed the business world
Even though the pandemic and the resulting tense situation on the labour and world markets unfortunately weren’t as short-lived as we had hoped at the beginning of 2020, we tried to see an opportunity even in that long-lasting crisis. Because one thing is certain: despite all the strain, Covid also brought lasting successes. After two business years with Covid, home office and logistics bottlenecks, companies and employees had learned to become flexible.
Technical solutions for home office and remote work were developed and implemented in record time; employees and companies became more experienced with video calls and flexible working hours.
Calls from and to mobile numbers became more widely accepted, as did lively background noise such as children, pets or coffee machines. Work–life balance gained a new dimension.
That made digital events with many people all the more important, so that our need for community didn’t suffer too much. And that is exactly what digital events, livestreams and virtual video formats can do.
Our free eBook on livestreams and digital events (in German)
See which business challenges our clients have solved with digital events. With many examples of different formats, including concepts and marketing strategies. The “digital events and livestream handbook” (in German) is a presentation-ready PDF file with an attractive design.
Livestream events can be a big undertaking, but they offer enormous benefits for events whose format gains from being broadcast online. The technical side is of course not your job. An experienced film production company or agency has all the equipment needed and plans the entire process: preparation, set-up, execution and post-production.
This way you can reach an even larger audience and easily turn the event into an event video for your website or social media afterwards – and, as during the pandemic, you aren’t dependent on how many people can attend in person.
